Around 116 vehicles destroyed by Bureau of Customs

MANILA:  The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has yet again squashed around 116 vehicles which were imported illegally in the country, without paying their respective duties. The batch of offending vehicles was seized at the Manila port which consisted mainly of motorcycles. The combined value of the imported vehicles is estimated to be around Php 34.71 million by the Bureau officials.

Popular casualties include a second-hand BMW F-series GS, two Triumph Bonneville, a Harley Davidson Road King and 112 Vespa PX two-wheelers. The batch also had four cars namely two Land Rover Defenders, a Volvo sedan and a Mitsubishi Pajero. All the vehicles were trampled down by an excavator on May 30 at the Manila’s Port Area.

This is not the first time that customs department has taken such a harsh step. Back in February 2018, the BOC crushed 30 smuggled vehicles. The list included a Chevrolet Corvette, a fleet of Toyota Land Cruisers and cars from German automakers, Mercedes-Benz and BMW as the victims.

Eminent personalities like the President, Rodrigo Roa Duterte; Finance Secretary, Carlos Dominguez III; Sec. Bong Go, Special Assistant to the President attended the demolition. Others included General Carlito Galvez Jr., Staff Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines; Eduardo Año, Office-in-Charge of the Department of Interior and Local Government and Oscar Albayalde, the Director General of the Philippine National Police.

Isidro Lapeña, the Customs Commissioner said, "The President's order is clear, sending a very strong message to smugglers, to stop what they have been doing. These smugglers have long been cheating the government. This has to stop”.